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 | Newsletter April 1997 Number 2 |
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ContentsAppointmentsVisitors Departmental Reports Enrolments Student Programming Competition Events Postgraduate News Masters Theses PhD Theses
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Bill Rosenberg
Acting Director (until 31 August 1997)
Keith Unsworth
Academic Head (until 31 December 1997)
Computer graphics, primarily geometric modelling and scientific visualization.
Malika Mahoui MA, PhD Montpellier
Lecturer (from February)
Databases, transactional systems, distributed systems.
Kai Ming Ting BEE UTM, MCSc Malaya, PhD Sydney
Lecturer (from August 1996)
Maching learning and other aspects of artificial intelligence.
Patricia Riddle PhD Rutgers
Lecturer
Artificial Intelligence, knowledge representation, machine learning.
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Martin Henson (February - March)
Computer Science Department, University of Essex
Formal theories of program development; formal methods; logic.
Malcolm Moffat (October '96 - March '97)
Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh
Digital libraries.
Bernhard Pfahringer (August '96 - August '97)
Austrian Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Vienna
Practical applications of the Minimum Description Length Principle in machine learning, genetic algorithms, constraint logic programming, and search and optimization in general.
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Bob handed over a very useful HOD "Resource Kit" to his successor (the undersigned). It included many practical aids such as scissors for "trimming departmental budgets", extra strength aspirin for "consumption after senate meetings", chocolate fish for the "staff bonus incentive scheme", jelly beans to "assist with accounting", and worry beads for "trying times". Certainly the new HOD is relying heavily on his advice as he comes to grips with the job.
We have had a busy start to the academic year with a rather unexpected 20% increase in student numbers at all levels. This has created pressure on all parts of our Department, particularly after a budget cut for 1997. Academic and resource planning is already underway for 1998 and beyond, so we hope this cutback will only be temporary. The University will undergo an academic audit in July, and the Department itself will be reviewed toward the end of the year, so there is more paper work to come.
Various research activities within the Department are flourishing, with a boost provided by the arrival of the new professors Reinhard Klette and Clark Thomborson in 1996. The Computing and Information Technology Research Group has been established under Reinhard's leadership at Tamaki with emphasis on the areas of computer vision, artificial intelligence, data communications, computer architecture and cryptology. Clark has recently visited most Computer Science departments as visiting lecturer and is busy establishing the area of computer performance analysis within the Department.
Among other highlights, the Centre for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science, a joint venture between Auckland and Waikato under the leadership of Cris Calude and Douglas Bridges, is flourishing. A most successful conference was held in December 1996, and another conference on "Unconventional Models of Computation" will be held in January 1998. The Hypermedia Unit, under the direction of Jennifer Lennon, has continued its contracted work with outside organisations such as the Museum of New Zealand and the National Library of New Zealand. Jennifer's multimedia and hypermedia systems paper continues to be the most popular at Stage 4 level, with an enrolment of over 70 students this year. John Hosking and Ric Mugridge have secured a TBG contract to develop software for the design of aluminium frames for the building industry.
Peter Gibbons
4 April 1997
Peter Andreae
8 April 1997
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Brian Cox
| 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | |
| First year (with Comp Sci since 1996) |
770 | 1257 | 1400 |
| Second year | 281 | 408 | 684 |
| Third year | 178 | 351 | 442 |
| Fourth year | 113 | 158 | 116 |
| Masters/PhD | 28 | 48 | 55 |
Stephen MacDonell
Elizabeth Post
Tim Bell
Peter Andreae
Chris Jesshope
| 1995 (EFTS) | 1996 (EFTS) | 1997 (EFTS) | |
| Part 1 | 153 | 133 | 170 |
| Part 2 | 103 | 101 | 121 |
| Part 3 | 73 | 60 | 82 |
| Part 4 | 47 | 47 | 39 |
| Masters/DPhil | 31 | 21 | 27 |
Mark Apperley
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The contestants are provided with a set of problems graded as 5 point, 20 point, 50 point and 150 point problems and have to collaborate using one PC between them to produce a program which will give the same output as the judge's program when run against a data file.
This years contest was run a little later in the year than is normally the case and entries were correspondingly down. There were twelve Auckland entries, two from Otago and one each from Waikato and Palmerston North.
The overall winners were the Megamagic Team from Auckland University with a huge score of 420 points. Second was a Stuart Inglis in a one man 'Team' from Waikato with 150 points.
The Manukau Institute of Technology team WTZ won the Year one division.
The full results are:
| Institution | Team Name | Year | Score |
| Auckland Uni | Megamagic | 3 | 420 |
| Waikato Uni | Just Stu's | 3 | 150 |
| Massey Uni | Dirk Gentley's Holistic Coding Agency | 3 | 125 |
| Otago Uni | Pentium Tricarbonate | 3 | 105 |
| Auckland Uni | Fooptr returns | 3 | 100 |
| Auckland Uni | 14641 | 3 | 65 |
| Manukau Inst Tech | WTZ | 1 | 55 |
| Auckland Uni | Krogon Poppa's Boys Dropping off the Lip | 2 | 50 |
| Auckland Uni | Da Gals | 3 | 45 |
| Manukau Inst Tech | Creative Logic | 1 | 30 |
| Manukau Inst Tech | Win | 1 | 15 |
| Manukau Inst Tech | Software | 1 | 10 |
| Southland Polytech | Usual Suspects | 2 | 10 |
| Auckland Uni | No Code | 2 | 10 |
| Manukau Inst Tech | Driving Clowns | 1 | 5 |
| Manukau Inst Tech | QwikByte | 1 | 5 |
Bob Gibbons
Manakau Institute of Technology
7 Feb 1997
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The Australasian Refinement Workshops (formerly the Australian Refinement Workshops) have been held every 12 to 18 months since 1991. The New Zealand Formal Program Development Colloquia have been run since 1994. Both workshops have aimed to facilitate discussion and advancement of current research by focussing on work in progress, and both have attracted many active researchers from within Australasia and abroad. The two will be run together as a combined workshop for the first time in 1997. In recognition of the quality of papers presented at recent workshops, we will be refereeing papers and publishing proceedings for FMP'97. We will, however, still aim to provide the opportunity for authors to present work in progress and to encourage active discussion. We especially wish to encourage post-graduate students to participate.
GeoComputation '97-9th Annual SIRC Colloquium
Dunedin (IS Otago) 26-29 August '97
The 2nd International Conference on GeoComputation is to be held in Dunedin from August 26 to 29
incorporating research relating to all aspects of computational geography, the convergence of
computer science, geography, geomatics, information science, mathematics and statistics.
ENZCon'97
Auckland (Massey) 1-2 September '97
There is no theme for ENZCon'97, it is however a stock take of electronics research, education
and industry in New Zealand. Papers can be of any type, eg: application, tutorial, poster, etc.
ENZCon conferences consider papers for acceptance relating to electronics, mechatronics, robotics,
and related physics, technology, and educational subjects. If uncertain as to appropriateness,
please enquire or submit an abstract. A papers committee will moderate and review submitted
abstracts. In the event of there being more acceptable papers submitted than can be presented
in the time available, the Papers Committee will make a further selection. It is hoped to
arrange prizes for the best paper and poster.
For more information see http://www.massey.ac.nz/~ENZCon97.
ICONIP'97 jointly with ANZIIS'97 and ANNES'97
Dunedin (IS Otago) 24-28 November '97
Featured in November 1996 Newsletter.
Unconventional Models of Computation Conference
Auckland (Auckland, Waikato) 5-11 January '98
The aim of this conference is to bring together all areas of unconventional computation,
especially quantum computing, computing using organic molecules (DNA), and various proposals
for computation that go beyond the Turing model. Papers are being sought in these and
related areas. The refereed proceedings will be published by Springer-Verlag, and copies
will be available for participants at the conference.
| Submissions Due: | 15 July 1997 |
| Notification: | 15 September 1997 |
| Final Copies Due: | 1 November 1997 |
For more information see the conference home page at http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/CDMTCS/docs/news.html, or contact the secretary M. Dinneen at mjd@cs.auckland.ac.nz.
TFCV'98
(Auckland) 1620 March '98
Featured in November 1996 Newsletter.
Australasian Computer Science Conference
Auckland (Auckland) 1999
The Australiasian Computer Science Conferences will be held in Auckland in early 1999.
It was generally agreed by those at the conference just finished at Macquarie University in
Sydney that the conference held in Christchurch in 1994 was the best ever. We plan to at
least maintain that standard in Auckland in 1999.
From past experience, there will be at least four conferences held around that time. At Macquarie, they introduced the term "Australasian Computer Sciences Week" for the following 3 conferences held this year-
| ACAC Australasian Computer Architecture Conference | Monday, Tuesday |
| CATS Computing-Australasian Theory Symposium | Monday, Tuesday |
| ACSC Australasian Computer Science Conference | Wednesday-Friday |
There is usually a Database conference as well, but it was cancelled in favour of an international Database Conference in Melbourne later this year. There is also talk of a possible conference on Logic Programming as well for 1999. Institutions near the conference venue are also encouraged to hold specialist seminars, workshops etc before or after the main conferences (this is how the Architecture Conference started). The time is not yet decided, but many Australians spoke in favour of the week before Australia day (18 - 22 January).
Please note that all conferences include the word "Australasian" in their titles. It is our responsibility to maintain sufficient New Zealand interest to justify retaining this title, instead of the previous "Australian". So please everybody prepare to submit lots of papers and then attend the conference. For 1997, papers were submitted as
| NSW | 27 | |
| Vic | 23 | |
| Qld | 19 | |
| SA | 11 | |
| NZ | 10 | |
| WA | 4 | |
| Tas | 1 | |
| Other | 18 |
So our paper submission numbers are already well up among the Australian states, but on a population basis we could well double the number of submissions-how about it?
As preparation for the wonderful week in Auckland, you should consider attending the 1998 conference in Perth, 2-6 Feb 1998. (And of course submitting papers.) Perth is a very pleasant city, much less hectic than East Coast cities. (I spent about 3 months of my 1995 Study Leave there.) While West Australia is a VERY big place with lots of very interesting scenery further north, there is good sightseeing with day-trip distance of Perth. Train enthusiasts might like to consider too the "Indian-Pacific" train Sydney-Perth (or Adelaide-Perth), regarded as one of the world's best railway journeys, but ensure that you book well in advance. However you get there, it would be good to have plenty of New Zealanders there, preferably presenting LOTS of papers.
For information on the Perth conference see http://www.cs.uwa.edu.au/acsw98.
Peter Fenwick
University of Auckland
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Dr Kulasiri also has another Masters student with a GRIF. He is Mike Youngman, who is
working with Lincoln Technology and Painters Timber Ltd to develop a moisture measurement
technique for timber using AquaFlex technology developed by Lincoln Technology.
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